NICE PEOPLE USE DRUGS TOO

New Campaign Pushes for an Honest Discussion of and Approach to Drug
Use in Our Society

Nice People Take Drugs. That's the name of a campaign launched by
Release, a nonprofit service and advocacy organization in the United
Kingdom. The campaign aims to inspire a more honest discussion and
approach to drug use in our society and also to highlight the stigma
faced by people who use or have used illicit drugs.

I first heard about the campaign when I received a call from someone
at Release who was coming to New York and other US cities to take
photos of Americans holding up signs with the text "Nice People Take
Drugs". These photos of ordinary people identifying as drug users were
also snapped in other cities around the world.

The campaign also includes images of elected officials in the UK and
the USA with quotes about their drug use. They feature a wide range of
cultural, political, and business leaders such as Oprah Winfrey,
President Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger, Mayor Bloomberg, Sarah
Palin, Richard Branson, and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

There is something simple and powerful about the Nice People Take
Drugs campaign. Right off the bat, it challenges people to think about
their image of drug users. There are a range of stereotypes when it
comes to drug users: on one end of spectrum there is the lazy, stupid
couch potatoes who sit around eating Cheetos. Then there is the image
of the homeless addict panhandling on the street.

But if you think about it for a second, despite a 40 year "war on
drugs" and elected officials calling for a "drug free society", our
society is swimming in drugs. Coffee, soda, cigarettes, Prozac, weed,
steroids, Ritalin, alcohol, are just a sample of the drugs that people
take to get through the day. Yet only certain people and certain drugs
are stigmatized, while others are normalized.

Throughout recorded history, people have inevitably altered their
consciousness to fall asleep, wake up, deal with stress, and for
creative and spiritual purposes.

Sure, drugs can be fun. How many of us enjoy having some drinks and
going out dancing? How many of us enjoy a little smoke after a nice
dinner with friends? Many people bond with others or find inspiration
alone while under the influence of drugs. On the flip side, many
people self-medicate to try to ease the pain in their lives. How many
have us have had too much to drink to drown our sorrows over a breakup
or some other painful event? How many of us smoke cigarettes or take
prescription drugs to deal with anxiety, stress, or physical pain?

Why are some drugs legal and other drugs illegal today? It's not based
on any scientific assessment of the relative risks of these drugs -
it's based on who is associated with these drugs. The first anti-opium
laws in the 1870s were directed at Chinese immigrants. The first
anti-cocaine laws, in the South in the early 1900s, were directed at
black men. The first anti-marijuana laws, in the Midwest and the
Southwest during the 1910s and 20s, were directed at Mexican migrants
and Mexican Americans. Today, Latino and black communities are still
subject to wildly disproportionate drug enforcement and sentencing
practices.

While it is clear that drug use doesn't discriminate and the majority
of us are using one drug or another, the reality is that the war on
drug users does discriminate. More than 1.6 million people were
arrested last year on nonviolent drug charges, and the vast majority
of these arrests were for low-level possession, not selling or
trafficking. In New York City, "moderate" Mayor Bloomberg's police
arrested close to 50,000 people for marijuana possession in 2009 - and
87% of those arrested were black and Latino, despite similar rates of
marijuana use as whites. Nationally, African Americans are arrested 13
times the rates of whites even thought they use and sell drugs at
similar rates. Most people use drugs, but mostly brown and black
people go to jail for it.

The stigma and fear that people who use illicit drugs feel is real. If
people admit or it is discovered that they use illegal drugs they can
lose their job, their housing, and even their children. It is
mind-blowing to think that someone who decides to smoke a joint on the
weekend, something that can be much safer than drinking or other legal
drugs, must fear for their freedom and their family.

Some brave individuals who use drugs, and some organizations, are
starting to organize. In New York and San Francisco groups made up of
people who use drugs are coming together to demand respect and a seat
at the table when it comes to protecting their health and their lives.
In New York a dynamic group named Voices of Community Activists and
Leaders (VOCAL) was instrumental in passing a law that expands access
to clean syringes in order to reduce HIV and Hep C, and promotes
proper disposal of used syringes without fear of arrest from the police.

We have to learn how to live with drugs, because they aren't going
anywhere. Drugs have been around for thousands of years and will be
here for thousands more. We need to educate people about the possible
harms of drug use, offer compassion and treatment to people who have
problems, and leave in peace the people who are not causing harm. And
we need to take action against the incarceration of so many of our
brothers and sisters who are suffering behind bars because of the
substance that they choose to use.

Nice People Take Drugs. That's why the war on drugs is a war on
us.